Game of the Year
by Lunyk
Summary: A group of nine teens get the chance of a lifetime: they get to playtest SBurb, the Game of the Year! But when the world they've known all their lives is destroyed in the process, will they have what it takes to complete their arduous quest? What will they learn about themselves in the process? The story follows the journals of each character, looking back at the journey they made.
1. It Begins

Reader, before this story begins, you need to be warned, whoever you are, wherever you are, in whatever timeline you're in: This is not a fairytale. It might sound like nothing more than an idle dream, with magic powers and fantastical new worlds. But it's not. There's no "happily ever after". There are no heroes. There's no closing the book and going back. This is real. This happened. _Is_ happening. And maybe, if you read this, in some way we might have succeeded.

It was early morning in October when the world ended. I opened my eyes that Saturday morning feeling great. I was supposed to get a copy of SBurb that day, and I was going to play it with my closest friends! But first…

=/= Enter name.

My name's LUCAS DAMIEN. I have a variety of INTERESTS. Among them are FANTASY STORIES, which I also WRITE SOMETIMES; I just love books and movies with DRAGONS, WIZARDS, and KNIGHTS. I also write POETRY and draw ANTHROPOMORPHIC ANIMALS, or FURRIES. I also really love SCIENCE and QUANTUM THEORY. I run a few small WEBSITES and frequent the INTERNET. I'm not very good with REAL PEOPLE and I'm much more confident to talk to people when they're ONLINE.  
I have no clue why I told you all of that.

Anyways, it was a Saturday morning that was pretty normal, except of course for the heightened excitement mixed with anxiety that always precedes an expected parcel in the mail. I had barely been able to sleep, I remember. I sprung out of bed as soon as I woke up- I usually spend an hour or two in bed after I wake up, the blinds closed and laptop open. I pulled on a pair of shorts- why don't I ever wear jeans? oh well, I guess it's too late to go to the store and buy some _now_- and my favorite T-shirt, white with a deep blue fish on it. One of my best friends, Alex, gave it to me, and since I would be playing the Game of the Year with him today, I thought it would be meaningful to wear the shirt he gave me. And, as it turned out, we all had the same sentiment. I think that was part of the game's design, for us to wear white shirts with a single symbol on each. Like some sort of paradox loop thing. Just another addition to the "Things I Don't Understand About SBurb" list.  
After practically inhaling a bowl of Froot Loops and slurping down the remainder of the milk, I grabbed my laptop and headed downstairs. I pulled it open as I threw myself onto the couch, the light blue glow the only light in the room. As soon as it turned on with the familiar violins-tuning-before-a-concert hum of Windows, a small _ding!_ alerted me that I had an incoming message in BuddyBadger.

- happySunsad [HS] began badgering lordSquiggleshire [LS] –  
HS: haiiii~  
LS: Heheh, hey~  
HS: How you?  
LS: Goodly! You?  
HS: I'm okay~ :)  
LS: Hey, do you have SBurb yet? It's supposed to come in the mail and all, but... It's been, like, a week! What if it got lost?  
HS: Luke! It's fine. It's just a little late  
LS: I guess...  
LS: Anyways, what's up?  
HS: Nm!  
HS: Hey, I gtg. I'll ttyl~  
- happySunsad [HS] ceased badgering lordSquiggleshire [LS] -

Well. That was over pretty fast.

Anyways, next I wasted most of the day on the Internet, of course.

- lordSquiggleshire [LS] began badgering eraserQueen [EQ] -  
LS: Chloeeee! You there?  
EQ: Hai! What's up?  
LS: Not anything really. Sorta bored. You?  
EQ: Gewd. Whatcha up to?  
LS: Blegh! I just really want SBurb to get here.  
EQ: Heh. It'll get there today, right?  
LS: Yup!  
LS: Wait, "there"? Aren't you getting one too?  
EQ: Well, yeah. We all got one thanks to that contest thingummy, right? "The lucky winner and 8 of his closest friends" or whatever?  
LS: Right! Although idk if sis counts as a "closest friend".  
EQ: :/ You guys really oughta get along!  
LS: I'm sure we will! I'm just sorta afraid that she's only playing SBurb because she can? And I just feel sorta bad that one of my other friends can't play since she is.  
LS: Speak of the devil! GTG  
- lordSquiggleshire [LS] ceased badgering eraserQueen [EQ] -

I'll admit. I think it's pretty cool that my lime green and her leaf green are so similar.

My twin sister walked in then. A bit shorter than me- only 4'11 and fifteen years old!- with long brown hair like mine. Except obviously mine isn't long. And I think hers is called "wavy"? Idk. I really wish this dang asteroid computer had a backspace instead of this "=/=" button. I mean, what does it even do?

Anyways, she walked in carrying her phone as always and sat down beside me. Not saying anything. Just. Sitting. There? She was wearing her SBurb shirt though, the one with a pink butterfly.  
"Uh, Kate?" I said. "Good morning?"  
She groaned, "'Morning." Her wavy! hair was all tangled. She'd just gotten up- past noon, of course. Wow. Had I really stayed online that whole time? One of my many bad habits, in retrospect. Maybe if I hadn't been so addicted to the Internet none of this would've happened.  
"Heh. Just get up? How could you even sleep?" I bounced a little on the couch. "I'm really excited about getting SBurb."  
"Mmm." She leaned back and turned on the TV. "Has the mail come yet?"  
I glared at her. "You're always angry in the morning, aren't you? Can't you just be nice for a change? And I dunno, I haven't checked."  
She ignored me. Instead of trying to get her to respond, I got up and walked over to the front door and peered out.

Sure enough, the little red flappy-dealie-thing was up!


	2. Slow Start

Okay. My turn, I guess. Um. How do I even start?

=/= Enter name.

That works, I guess. My name is ALEX TAVER. I _love_ to PLAY MUSIC. I play the PIANO and VIOLIN especially, but I'll try anything, I guess. I love to READ BOOKS. I PLAY GAMES sometimes too. COMPUTER GAMES, I mean.

Where do I even begin? It was October 19th, 2013. Sunny, a bit windy. The meteorites came out of nowhere, with no sign of them before they hit. I slept in pretty late like any other Saturday, too. It wasn't until about 12 that I was woken up by the buzzing of my phone. One of my friends. Or I guess my best friend's twin sister, who is also my friend, was "badgering" me with that cool new app Skaiacorp was letting us test thanks to the contest Luke won.

- pinkMystery [PM] began badgering aprevatteNeuxolian [AN] -  
PM: morning  
AN: HI!  
PM: you up yet  
AN: I am now :|P  
PM: sorry  
AN: Iy's okay. How ahhhhh you?  
PM: good. Howr you?  
AN: Tired  
PM: sorry  
AN: But good! I'm excited!  
PM: sburb right?  
AN: Mhm! This is soooo kewl. :|D  
PM: i guess, yeah!  
AN: If its like portal or something itll be so cool right! :|D  
PM: yeah, i guess  
AN: You don't think soy?  
PM: soy?  
AN: Soy.  
PM: yup itll be fun!  
- pinkMystery [PM] ceased badgering aprevatteNeuxolian [AN] -

Looking back on it that was sorta a stupid conversation, huh?

I got up and put on my clothes, including the SBurb shirt Luke made for me: a white tee with a lime green triangle. I think it was supposed to be a PLAY button, like on a DVD, but I'm not sure. He tried at least. Shoot! Will he read this? Argh why doesn't this moon computer have a backspace! Is this a-

=/= Retrieve game disc.

I went downstairs, checking the table. No mail.

Oh. So that's what that button does. Huh. Cool. Like a FIND OBJECTIVE button I guess!

I pet my dog (Samson, German shepherd) and played piano (Beethoven and the Beatles) for a little bit. Read a book. Sorta boring, waiting for the mail on a Saturday. Is this even how you do this? Its like a diary but from like a month in the future!

Oh, I also badgered some people.

- aprevatteNeuxolian [AN] began badgering missDedodakes [MD] -  
AN: HI!  
MD: HIIIIIIII!  
AN: HIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII!  
MD: !iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii iiiiH  
- aprevatteNeuxolian [AN] ceased badgering missDedodakes [MD] -

Did I mention my day was pretty boring? I'm gonna skip forward in time a little, if that's okay. Maybe this button'll help! I

=/= Fight back.

I raised my hands slowly, the Fear No Ladle in one hand and the Horsehair Chanterelle in the other. Hundreds of monsters, from puny Calcium Imps with their eight arms to Uranium Hydras with their firey breath, were closing in. I lept forward and

Too far.

Anyways, the mail didn't come 'til around 1:30, almost an hour and a half after it came to Luke's part of the city, which sucked for us because he needed me to play it. But as soon as it came, I ran to the mailbox and-

Sure enough, there it was: one big square cardboard box labeled "SKAIACORP: DO NOT OPEN."


	3. Captcha'd

Hey there, Reader. Luke here. Sorry about Alex messing things up. This is a bit different from most computers, being from Skaia and all, so we're still figuring things out. I'll fill you in a bit more later, but basically, we're gonna make a record of all our adventures, just in case maybe somewhere someone- you- can read them and learn from our mistakes. So, without further ado: the story.

=/=

It wasn't there.

The game wasn't there! There were a few letters, mostly bills, and magazines and stuff, sure, but no game!

I slammed the mailbox shut impatiently, running back across the lawn to our front door. I was just about to go back inside, but something made me stop and turn around.

With fall settling in, the neatly trimmed grass was turning yellow and brittle, dusted with shades of oranges and reds from the falling leaves of the four trees standing like sentinels in a square, surrounding the edges of the yard. Especially on days like today, I really wish there was more to do out here, in the real world, wide and green, expansive with potential. I used to be outside all the time, pretending to be a pirate or a knight or anything really, hanging out in the treehouse or on the driveway or just anywhere. But the neighbourhood is mostly filled with adults whose kids went off to college, and playing pretend can get pretty lonely.

Even though it was a bright and sunny day, I shivered as a strong gust of wind whistled through the air and thick, heavy clouds momentarily eclipsed the sun. That moment actually reminds me of a quote: "The wind has its reasons. We just don't notice as we go about our lives. But then, at some point, we are made to notice. The wind envelops you with a certain purpose in mind, and it rocks you. The wind knows everything that's inside you." -Orson Scott Card

At least, I _think_ Orson Scott Card said that. It's sorta hard to check right now, since there's no Wi-Fi or Internet access on the moon of Derse as it hurtles through the Furthest Ring. So just humour me.

Something hit my foot. The wind had knocked over a brown, cardboard package I hadn't noticed before that had been leaning against the wall next to the door. It was smaller than I was expecting, only, like, a foot tall, and really thin too. I had been told SBurb would come in a box that was shaped like a nonagonal prism- like a rectangular prism, but with nine sides instead of four (Actually, technically, eleven instead of six, but who's counting the sides?).

Still, it had the famous Skaiacorp logo, a lime green spirograph with the red letters "SC" underneath.

Picking it up, I stepped back inside. "Did it come yet?" Kate called from the couch.

"Um… I don't think so? But _something_ did," I answered, holding up the package.

"Huh." She turned back to the TV. Not interested.

I sighed through my teeth, frustrated by my twin's apathy. Walking into the kitchen, I grabbed a pair of scissors and ripped into the tape binding the box together. Inside, amid newspaper clippings used for stuffing, were three stacks of… playing cards? And a letter.

=/= Read letter.

"Dear Mr. Lucas Damien and Mrs. Katherine Damien,

We're very sorry for the inconvenience, but your copies of SBurb went through a spot of trouble. They should arrive first thing tomorrow. In the meantime, we hope you two will use this time to acquaint yourselves with the Captchalogue System used in the game. Included are four Pocket Modus cards, six Purse Modus cards, and two blank Strife Specibi. Use them wisely.

-Skaiacorp"

"Kate!" I called. "Get in here!"

She slammed the door open a few seconds later. "What is it?" she demanded, glowering.

In lieu of answering I handed her the letter. As she read it, her expression changing from one of annoyance to puzzlement, I looked over the cards. There were four navy blue ones- "Pocket Modus", whatever that means- and six light pinkish-purple ones- "Purse Modus" cards. There were also two army-green cards that looked different from the others.

The Modi looked pretty simple, with single-colour borders and a large white box in the middle. I flipped a blue one over. The backs had something that looked like the field for a Captcha, like, those things you have to fill out when you forget your password on a website, except these were blank. What the fuck is this?

My phone buzzed just as Kate set the letter down. "Hold on," I told her.

- grayHeat [GH] began badgering lordSquiggleshire [LS] -  
GH: Hey  
LS: Hi Gray! :D Long time no see! What's up?  
GH: Yea sorry. My phone got taken away.  
LS: Oh. That's disappointing. :/ So what's up?  
GH: Nm. So did you get sburb yet?  
LS: Uh, heh, not quite. Why, did you?  
GH: Yea man I think everyone has it but you  
LS: Really?! Grr D:  
GH: Why, whats going on?  
LS: Well apparently, Kate and my games got lost in the mail or something? And it's not coming til tomorrow  
GH: Ah man youre missing out!  
LS: Wait wait wait, you haven't played yet, have you?!  
GH: Nah, but the captchalogue thing is sweet  
LS: Really? We got our cards in advance! How does it work?  
GH: Well, each one works differently, obviously. Usually they have like a catch or something.  
LS: Catch?  
GH: Yeah  
GH: Which one did you get  
LS: Lol well I'm not using purse modus, thank you. So Pocket I guess?  
GH: Oh that's pretty simple. It can hold anything as long as it's within a certain size. So no Eiffel towers and shit. But other than that's its pretty simple  
LS: Alright! :D Which did you get?  
GH: Piracy, heh. I can hold anything! And even captchalogue things I don't even have. :D  
LS: Aah that sounds cool! So whats the "catch" then?  
GH: Well sometimes things will glitch and I cant get them out and stuff. Its stupid  
LS: Oh, THAT kind of piracy. Sounds like SkaiaCorp knows you pretty well!  
GH: Or it was lucky  
LS: Well, yeah. So, um, how do I get it to, like, work?  
GH: Okay, so you take the card.

I picked up one of the blue cards. Kate looked at me as I held it up.

LS: I have the card.  
GH: Right so you take them all and press your thumb against the white part like it's a motherfucking spy system and you need to unlock the door with your fingerprints.  
LS: Uh? Okay…

"Okay so, Kate, Gray says you need to press your thumb against the white part," I told her when I saw that she had her stack of pinkish cards. When she nodded, I turned my focus back to the cards. Eagerly, I press my thumb against one, and

It vanished.

LS: Uh? I did what you said but it vanished!  
GH: Yup  
LS: And?  
GH: And it worked.  
- grayHeat [GH] ceased badgering lordSquiggleshire [LS] -

"Ugh," I sighed. Kate looked at me quizzically. "Gray was no help."

I scowled and put my phone into my pocket.

That disappeared too.

My heart started racing. "Woah!"

"What is it?" Kate asked.

"Did you do the thing?" I asked, excited now.

"Yeah, why?"

I pointed to her purse. "Put something in there. Anything!"

She rolled her eyes, but picked up her phone and dropped it into a pocket accordingly. "What?" she asked, turning back to me with a groan.

"Is it still there?" I asked.

"What?" she asked. She unzipped her purse again and opened it. "Uh… okay, what?" She laughed. "That is _too cool_."

I nodded vigourously. "Yeah!" I put my hand into my pocket, and my phone was back. Somewhere- I still don't really get where, this whole Captchalogue thing's pretty trippy- I could see sense feel see the four cards hovering. My phone was in the first one, and the other three- for my other three pockets, I guess- were empty. "Kate, does your purse have six pockets in it?"

She checked, then nodded. "Yup!"

Now it was my turn to laugh. "This is awesome." I pulled out the first card with my phone in it- where from?- and examine it. It looked exactly the same as before, except a photographic image of my phone filled the space where the white box used to be. I flipped it over- the Captcha was now filled in, with a seemingly random series of numbers and letters: "oi4Ds62J".

I put the card back before examining the other two cards that were in the package. These were military green, with another white box on the front. The back, though, had a bunch of checkboxes instead of a Captcha.

Not wanting to mess anything up, I decided to ask the "expert".

- lordSquiggleshire [LS] began badgering grayHeat [GH] -  
LS: Hey okay thanks for the help before but I need it again if that's okay?  
GH: Sure what is it  
LS: What're these strife specibi things?  
GH: Oh those are cool. Theyre like what you fight with in the game.  
LS: Ah really? Okay that's cool. :D  
GH: Oh but wait. Before you do something stupid like bladekind or whatever, you have to actually have it with you irl  
LS: Really? That's dumb :/  
GH: Yea but the game takes elements from real life or something, so I guess its like whatever you use your character will use too. Cool right?  
LS: Yeah! :D  
LS: Alright well, thanks for the help! :)  
GH: Np dude  
- lordSquiggleshire [LS] ceased badgering grayHeat [GH] -

I looked over the options on the back as I relayed the info to Kate. Several specibi seemed _really_ cool- dicekind, tablelegkind, forkkind- and I almost did choose bladekind, whatever Gray said. _That_ would've been a disaster.

But then I remembered something I had made a while ago that might actually prove useful. I've already mentioned I really like wizards and fantasy and stuff, right? Well last year at summer camp I took Metalworking, and on the last day we could make whatever we wanted. So, me being the nerd I am, I made a _wand_. Yep, go ahead and laugh, but it's saved my life in strifes with imps and stuff early on.

Anyways, I clicked on wandkind. As soon as I did so it vanished, sliding into a fifth place with my four Pocket Modus cards. I ran upstairs to see that, while I'd been absorbed in my conversation, Kate had done the same. I grabbed my wand and went back down stairs at the same time she did. Except she was carrying a hair dryer. Not a wand. Duh.

"Hairdryerkind?" I asked with a smirk. "Ooh, _deadly_."

"Yeah, cause wandkind is so realistic." She shoved me in the arm, mostly playfully.

I stored the Makeshift Steel Wand [Ds97AE3i] in my specibus and immediately took it back out. It appeared in my hand, like magic. "Technology's pretty neat."


	4. Derse Dreamer

Hey, guys. Sorry you haven't heard from me in a while. We just reached some new dreambubbles and they've been keeping me pretty preoccupied. Hopefully someone out there's still reading this.

=/=

That night, I can't say I slept well. I had a really weird- or at least, weird at the time- dream. I was in my bedroom, except everything was purple for some reason? I was even wearing these silken purple pajamas with a big crescent moon on the chest! I've never had PJs like those; I'd remember if I wore something that fancy. It was almost like I was a prince, a royal of some ancient, long-forgotten kingdom.  
Anyways, the room looked sorta similar to mine: Four walls, although these were purple rather than green, and this room didn't have posters of various books, movies, or my own personal projects taped haphazardly over the walls like my real room did; the bed was were it always was, wedged in the corner; there was a nightstand with a drawer and a digital clock, although the drawer was empty and the clock was blank; the far wall was obscured by a large wooden bookshelf, although this one was A) purple and B) barren and devoid of novels. The main difference was that while in my room, the window would only take up a small section of the blank fourth wall and only be about as big as me, the window in this room was almost as big as the whole wall, looking out onto a purple balcony, which in turn looked out onto a purple, spired city. Really, now that I think about it, it was really more of a glass door than a window, but at the time I considered it a window and that's what I'm going to call it.  
On a whim, I slid open the door window, stepping out onto the balcony beyond. The air was cold, but not unbearable; the pajamas actually kept me surprisingly warm.  
The city's buildings were all the same shade of purple as everything else. It seems weird now, that Derse is exclusively purple, but at the time I discarded it as the whimsy of a strange, if oddly lucid, dream (or perhaps an omen about Grace). Anyways, everything was purple, from the balcony to the buildings to the giant chain that rose from far beyond the horizon, curving off past where I could see from my vantage point just outside the room. Naturally, I was curious what the huge purple chain soaring across the pitch-black sky was for, so I took a few steps forward, wrapping my hands around the ice-cold purple wrought iron railing surrounding the balcony, craning my neck up to see.  
It was a planet.  
A whole. 'Nother. Planet.  
The other planet hanging from the chain- the _real_ Derse- barely looked like a planet at all. It was completely covered with (guess what color?) buildings, jutting out like teeth from the relatively small planet. And when I say "relatively small," I mean that it couldn't have been farther away than the moon is to Earth, and yet the whole of it fit in the sky, although it _was_ pretty big. The city- because the whole planet was basically one big city- didn't seem to have any water, greenery, or anything other than buildings. This was my first taste of my dream planet, and I was curious. Putting my weight against the railing, I flew.  
Like I said, this was a dream (sort of). In your dreams, you can fly, right? In this one I could, in any case. It wasn't really flying so much as floating upwards, but it happened. And it drew attention.  
Looking down, I saw the road, really far below, filled with these little hard black-skinned guys in white clothes: carapacians. They were pointing up at me, calling things out. I couldn't really hear, since by this point I was up and floating by the chain, but I managed to make out the words "...is awake! The ... is awake!"  
Then, there was a whistling sound. Pain in the back of my head. And bright light as I awakened for real.


End file.
